Piano Tuning

The other day we had our Yamaha piano tuned. As I walked around the house, I could not help but noticed the different sounds emanating from my piano as the piano teacher turned piano chiropractor, styled the tightly wound rope to get the sound he wanted. As he prodded and twisted, sounds echoed my halls. Some sounds were well placed. Others were cacophonies of out of tune notes and harmonics which pierced ears and freely gave headaches.

You can have some the same experience with high end audio. For example, you can assemble a series of components that really don’t mesh at all. The result: blurred over tones, sharp piercing midranges, raspy highs. Assemble the right components: silky smooth midrange , texture, deep bass, no beaming – smooth sailing.

So, how to avoid? What causes this is listening in a dealer show room, impulsive ebay shopping and late night audiogon-ning. While it may have sounded all so well in the store, the interaction of rooms and equipment have created quite the mess.

Luckily, audiophiles have some weapons that can aim at the right tone with Apollo 13 "bring it on home" precision. You need a 30 day audition. Not just to see if the item you bought was of high quality, but to hear first hand, if your new piece “tunes” with your current system. If it does not, return it for another item that the retailer agrees will gel more with what you have. This, if anything, is the argument for not jumping into “used” equipment so fast. Return, you see, if it does not gel.

Yet another not so subtle one is tube rolling. Tubes can make such a difference that incorrect tubes can cause the piano tuning torture described above. For this reason, I keep several tube types on hand, swapping them to and fro, looking for the correct harmonic structure that I want.

The lesson is simple. You can hear this right off the bat. The best audition, is the home audition.